< PreviousCQ10Cahn’s Quarterly 1/2019AN OINOCHOE WITH LION'S HEAD APPLIQUE (GNATHIA WARE). H. 21.7 cm. Clay, black glaze, red, white and yellow paint. A pear-shaped, black-glazed jug with trefoil mouth and flat, profiled ring foot. The neck is adorned by a white-yellow tendril from which a female theatre mask, red fillets and white-yellow twigs are suspended. The transition of the handle to the rim is enlivened by a plastic, polychrome lion's head applique. A reddish, reserved band above the foot. Paint abraded in places. Mouth slightly worn. Formerly Coll. A. Raifé (1802-1860). Publ.: F. Lenormant, Description des antiquités ... composant la collection de feu M. A. Raifé, Paris, 1867, 181, no. 1420 (old collection label on the underside of the vase). Thereafter Paris priv. coll., acquired 1990. Western Greek, Apulian, Last quarter of 4th cent. B.C. CHF 12,000EPICHYSIS (GNATHIA WARE). H. 18.3 cm. Clay, black glaze, white and yellow paint. Piriform; beaked spout; high loop handle, profiled foot. Decorated figuratively with vine motifs; ornamental friezes. Head appliques at the handle's point of attachment. Body undamaged; handle fragment reattached. Formerly Swiss art mar-ket, before 2014. Western Greek, Apulian, 3rd quarter of 4th-early 3rd cent. B.C. CHF 800A SMALL SQUAT LEKYTHOS. H. 10.3 cm. Clay, black glaze. Squat lekythos with bulbous body on moulded ring foot with slender neck and funnel-shaped mouth. Neck, mouth and handle with restorations; ring foot worn; base with resealed fissure. Perfume flask. Formerly Bailly-Pommery & Voutier Associes, Paris, 17.3.2006 lot no. 15. An old label on the base inscribed in black ink: “1396". Attic, 3rd quarter 5th cent. B.C. CHF 800A BLACK-GLAZED TREFOIL OINOCHOE. H. 15.1 cm. Clay. The globular, elegantly curved jug stands on a conical foot. The broad handle has a semi-circular cross-section and runs from the trefoil mouth to the belly. A few surface losses and minor losses of glaze. Body intact. Formerly Paris art market, 2003. Western Greek, late 5th-4th cent. B.C. CHF 1,200CQ11Cahn’s Quarterly 1/2019A PROTO-CORINTHIAN POINTED ARYBALLOS. H. 10.5 cm. Clay. Ovoid cosmetic vessel that tapers markedly towards the base. Slender, tubular neck, disk-shaped mouth and broad strap handle. Richly decorated with incisions and added ochre and red. The body is adorned with a scale pattern and coloured dots; tongues on the shoulder, mouth and lower part of body; stripes on the handle. Handle, neck and a small fragment of the rim reattached. Minor restoration to the rim of the mouth. Surface abraded in one place. A few minor surface losses. Example of the so-called Transitional Style, which marks the transition from Proto-Corinthian to black-figure Corinthian painting. Aryballoi were used to store perfumed liquids, especially scented oils. Formerly priv. coll. Dr. R. H. (1922-2007), Switzerland, acquired on the Swiss art market between 1970 and 1990. Proto-Corinthian, 3rd quarter of 7th cent. B.C. CHF 6,800A BLACK-GLAZED GUTTUS WITH A SILEN'S HEAD. Dm. 11.5 cm. Clay, traces of white paint. Pouring vessel on profiled ring-foot with curved, finely ribbed wall, a loop-shaped strap handle and a tall, flaring spout. Central medallion with the frontal head of a silen in relief. He has a receding hairline, pointed ears, snub nose and shag-gy beard. Traces of a white coating on the base. Intact. Formerly Hôtel Drouot Paris, auction on 1.-2.10.2000, lot 803. Campanian, ca. 350-330 B.C. CHF 1,200A STRAP-HANDLED KANTHAROS. H. 15.4 cm, Dm. 12.1 cm. Clay, dull, black-brown-ish glaze. Double moulding and encircling stripes on the foot. The strap handles, at-tached to the everted rim, form an elegant and high loop. The vessel in the shape of a calyx. Complete, reassembled. Formerly German art market, 2003. Greek, Boeotian or Euboean, ca. 450 B.C. CHF 1,600A DRINKING CUP WITH SWAN. Dm. without handles 14.7 cm. Clay. Shallow cup on a low ring foot with even black slip. A laurel wreath in added white encircles the exterior. A small swan in added white and yellow decorates the tondo, with an abstracted ivy wreath around the low rim. The manner of decoration, as well as the horizontal handles with sharply upturned ends are characteristic of a class of ceramic production refered to as Gnathia ware. Reassembled from fragments. From the estate of the Swiss art dealer and collector Elsa Bloch-Diener (1922-2012), Berne, acquired between 1968 and 1983. Apulian, 4th cent. B.C. CHF 2,800CQ12Cahn’s Quarterly 1/2019The first citrus species to spread in the Medi-terranean was not the lemon, however, but a fruit that is much less familiar today, namely the citron (C. medica). Its large, yellow fruit, which can grow up to 25 cm in length and 4 kg in weight, has an uneven skin, a thick, white mesocarp (albedo) and relatively little pale greenish-yellow pulp. The “Median ap-ple”, as the citron was called before the term citrium became more popular in the Imperial Period, was first described by Theophrastus (ca. 371-287 B.C.), a pupil of Aristotle who is often considered the father of botany for his works on plants. In his Historia Plantarum he wrote: “This tree has a leaf similar to that of the strawberry tree, but it has thorns like those of the pear or whitethorn, which however are smooth and very sharp and strong. The ‘apple’ is not eaten, but it is very fragrant, as also is the leaf of the tree. […] It bears its ‘apples’ at all seasons; for when some have been gath-ered, the flower of others is on the tree and it is ripening others.” According to Theophrastus the fruit was used to protect clothes from be-ing moth-eaten, to sweeten the breath and as an emetic or laxative that was “useful when one has drunk deadly poison”. (4.4.2-3).It was only several centuries later that the fruit itself was described, first by Dioscurides (ca. 40-90 A.D.): “The fruit is oblong, wrinkled, golden in colour, somewhat oppressively ar-omatic and has a pear-shaped seed.” (De Ma-teria medica 1.115.5), and then, in somewhat greater detail, by Galen (ca. 130-210 A.D.): “The fruit has three parts, the acid part in the middle [which is inedible and contains the seeds], the flesh that surrounds this, and the external covering lying around it. This fruit is fragrant and aromatic, not only to smell, but also to taste. As might be expected, it is diffi-cult to digest since it is hard and knobbly.” (De alimentorum facultatibus 2.37). Whereas for Theophrastus the citron was an exotic plant that grew in distant Persia and Media, Dioscurides could say: “Everybody knows the ones called Median, or Persian, or cedromela, and in Latin citria.” (MM 1.115.5). It is possible that the Jewish diaspora fol-lowing the First Jewish-Roman War (66-74 A.D.) contributed to the spread of the citron in the Mediterranean, thereby making it bet-ter known. (E. Isaac, Influence of Religion on the Spread of Citrus, in: Science 129 (1959) 179-186). The fruit which is called etrog in Recipe from AntiquityCitrus Fruit in Antiquity “Do you know the land where the lemons blos-som, where oranges grow golden among dark leaves, a gentle wind drifts from the blue sky, the myrtle stands silent, the laurel tall, do you know it? It is there, it is there I long to go with you, my love.” (J. W. v. Goethe, Wilhelm Meis-ter’s Apprenticeship, Vol. 2, Book 3, Ch. 1).Mignon’s song from Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship may be regarded as the epito-me of the German yearning for Italy that was a source of inspiration for so many poets and painters of the Classical and Romantic Peri-ods. This longing for the light, colours and zest for life associated with the Mediterra-nean is as alive today as it was then, and the vibrant scent of a freshly cut lemon surely makes many a person here in the grey north of Europe dream of an idealised Italy.An Italy in which lemon trees sprout at every corner, lavishly emitting their perfume for the causal passerby to enjoy – “qui tocca anche a noi poveri la nostra parte di ricchezza ed è l’odore dei limoni” Eugenio Montale wrote in 1925 – did not, however, exist in Antiquity. Although citrus groves have characterised the Mediterranean landscape for centuries and Southern European cuisine without citrus fruit is quite unimaginable, they were largely unknown in ancient times. The bitter orange (C. x aurantium), the lime (C. x aurantifolia) and the pomelo (C. maxima) did not reach the Mediterranean until the late 10th centu-ry A.D., in the wake of the Islamic conquest. The sweet orange (C. x sinensis) was intro-duced in the 15th-16th centuries A.D., prob-ably spreading along trade routes established by the maritime republics and Portugal, and the mandarin (C. reticulata) was first brought to Europe in 1805 by Sir Alexander Hume, a Fellow of the Horticultural Society of Lon-don, who introduced many other ornamental plants from China, including several vari-eties of the chrysanthemum and the peony. It cannot be said with certainty since when the lemon (C. x limon) has been cultivated in Italy. However, a find made on the Forum Romanum in Rome comprising 13 seeds and a fragment of skin indicates that the fruit was already known in the Augustan Period. Pol-len and wood analyses from villas in Pompeii and Oplontis as well as representations on frescos and mosaics from Pompeii and Rome suggest that as of the 1st century A.D. lemon trees were increasingly grown in Roman lux-ury gardens, probably mainly as ornamental plants. (C. Pagnoux et al., The Introduction of Citrus to Italy, in: Veget. Hist. Archaeobot. 22 (2013) 421-438. D. Langgut, The Citrus Route Revealed, in: Hort. Science 52 (2017) 814-822).Citrons and a lemon. A BLACK-GLAZED CUP. Dm. 21.6 cm. Clay. Attic, 4th cent. B.C. CHF 2,600By Yvonne YiuCQ13Cahn’s Quarterly 1/2019Hebrew played an important role in the Feast of Tabernacles in ancient times and continues to do so today. Together with the closed frond of the date palm (lulav) and twigs of myrtle (hadass) and willow (arawot), it composed the ritual bouquet described in Leviticus 23,40. Although the biblical text only speaks of “the fruit of beautiful trees”, rabbinic texts dating from the 2nd century B.C. show that even then, the identification of the citron with this fruit could look back on a long tradition. As a symbol of the religious and national unity of the Jews, the citron was, from the 1st cen-tury B.C. onwards, often represented on fres-cos, mosaics, funerary monuments and ritual objects. In Year 4 of the First Jewish Revolt (69-70 A.D.) bronze coins with the citron were minted, and, even more provocatively, during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 A.D.) Ro-man coins were overstruck after the original design had been filed down, so that in some cases the citron replaced the Roman emperor’s head. The political clout of the citron was even physically felt on one occasion, as related by Flavius Josephus: Officiating as High Priest in the Temple, King Alexander Jannaeus (r. 103-76 B.C.) expressed his contempt for the Pharisees by pouring the libation water over his feet instead of onto the altar. At this mock-ery, the incensed “nation rose upon him and pelted him with citrons [which they then had in their hands, because] the law of the Jews re-quired that at the Feast of Tabernacles every-one should have branches of the palm tree and citron tree.” (Antiquitates Judaicae 13.13.5).As the citron played such a vital part in Jew-ish religious observance, the probability is great that the Jews who left the Holy Land did their utmost to grow the plant in their new homelands. Furthermore, as it was the custom during the period of the Second Tem-ple for children to eat etrogim on the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkah 4.7), it is possible that the increasing willingness of people to eat a fruit once regarded as in-edible, observed by various ancient authors, was also due to Jewish influence.Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) noted that whilst some people abhorred the citron for its scent and bitter taste, others were fond of it (Na-turalis Historia 13.31) and approximately a generation later Plutarch (ca. 45-125 A.D.) commented upon “the great change which has taken place with regard to food, relishes and the whole way of life. Many things which it was not customary to eat are now regarded as delicacies […]. Thus, even now we know many old people who cannot bear the taste of melons, cucumbers, citrons and pepper.” (Quaestiones convivales 8.9). It may be a co-incidence that these three “newfangled” fruit and vegetables were discussed in immediate succession by Apicius in the third book of De re coquinaria. Whilst melons and cucumbers were generally affordable – in the Price Edict of Diocletian (301 A.D.) the price specified for two large melons or for ten prime cucumbers was 4 denarii – citrons were an expensive luxury food, with a large citron priced at 24 denarii and a small one at 16 denarii. Luckily for the host wishing to impress his guests with citrons, it was sufficient to use small quanti-ties of the fruit due to its strong flavour.Citron Relish After De re coquinaria 3.5Cut 30 g citron (the peel, albedo and pulp can be used) into very small cubes. Mix with 1 tbsp each of liquamen, vinegar, dried mint and mountain sesely (alternatively use fen-nel fronds) and add a pinch of asafoetida (in-stead of the extinct silphium).Minutal dulce ex citriis After De re coquinaria 4.3.5Make defrutum by boiling two litres of grape juice down to about one third of its volume. Cut 80 g citron (only the albedo) into small cubes, add to the defrutum and again boil down to one third in order to produce a sweet and aromatic syrup with almost candied pieces of fruit. Make meat-balls (isiciola) from 500 g minced pork and fry them. Chop two leeks finely and fry them together with 200 g diced ham. Antidote to All Sorts of Pernicious Poison Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 3.85a“But if any one boils a whole citron with its seed in Attic honey, it is dissolved in the honey, and he who takes two or three fin-gers full of it early in the morning will nev-er experience any evil effects from poison.” Sadly, it seems to be a myth that a citron can be dissolved in boiling honey. I tried it using the best local honey and although the citron shrivelled slightly, it showed not the slightest intent of liquefying itself. I would not, therefore, bet my life on the bitter, caramel-like honey surrounding it. A SMALL BLACK-GLAZED BOWL. Dm 10.2 cm. Clay. Western Greek, 4th cent. B.C. CHF 600.A PLATE from A GROUP OF FIVE BOWLS AND PLATES. Dm. 22.5 cm. Red clay. Roman, 3rd-5th cent. A.D. Whole group CHF 3,200.Add some stock and cook slowly for ca. 10 minutes. Add the defrutum, citron cubes and meatballs. Season with pepper, cum-in, coriander leaves or seeds, rue, vinegar and liquamen. Thicken with starch, sprinkle with pepper and serve.The citron continued to be highly regarded for its curative powers and the medicinal uses described by Theophrastus were also menti-oned by later Latin authors. Galen added that the citron strengthened the oesophagus and cleansed the body as a whole, whilst Dios-curides noted that it was eaten by women to abate their lusting – the object of their desire remains unclear, with some translators assu-ming that the citron served as an anaphrodi-siac, whilst others suggest it was used against the food cravings experienced during preg-nancy. (AF 2.37; MM 1.115.5). The alleged ability of the citron to counteract the effects of poison had a fascination all of its own. It inspired Virgil (70 B.C.-19 A.D.) to a pas-sage in the Georgics: “Citron, blest fruit, the Median tracts produce, of ling'ring savour, and of austere juice; than which no plant, when stepdames, fell of soul, with charms and temper'd drugs have mixt the bowl, an antidote more instant can impart, to rout the venom, ere it reach the heart.” (2.126-130). With much verve, Athenaeus (late 2nd-early 3rd cent. A.D.) describes experiments using convicted criminals that successfully proved the efficacy of the citron as an antitoxin and goes on to provide the following recipe for an antidote (Deipnosophistae 3.83a-85a):CQ14Cahn’s Quarterly 1/2019HighlightThis head is a true highlight inasmuch as it cries out to be studied in depth and does not reveal all its many secrets at first glance. The question that spontaneously springs to mind is: Who is the lady portrayed here? Both this line of inquiry and the question that prompted it touch on something fundamental, because for all the ideal features and the restraint ev-ident in the rendition of individual traits, this marble head could still be the likeness of a specific person. A stylistic and physiognomi-cal analysis of the piece is therefore essential before our question can be answered.Now to the physiognomy, specifically the small mouth, inserted somewhat superficially so that it does not appear to be sinking into the flesh, the rounded, soft chin and, especial-ly striking, the hooked nose with a ‘bump’ in the middle – also known as an aquiline nose. Jean-David Cahn thought instantly of one of the Ptolemaic queens, and in the course of our discussion the name that came up was Ar-sinoë III, the Egyptian queen who married her brother Ptolemy II and reigned from 220 until her death in 204 B.C. It is not just the dating that makes this such an exciting idea; there are coins, too, that show very similar profiles and that also feature that same lock of hair on the right side of the face, as does the bronze head in Mantua that has long been thought to represent Arsinoë III. The collection of the former owner, moreover, contained numerous art objects of Egyptian origin.The archaeologist Christiane Vorster recently warned against relying on such methods to identify what are thought to be portraits of the female Ptolemies. Indeed the same difficulty afflicts all portraits of Hellenistic rulers. Rela-tively few of their official portraits have been identified to date. The only secure points of reference are the coins bearing both the names and likenesses of the monarchs in profile. For the heads still open to debate, the style, phys-iognomy, hair typology and insignia – a dia-dem as a rule – all have to come together.While the state of preservation makes this head even more difficult to judge, given how little of the hair and the upper part of the head have been preserved – a crown is certainly conceiv-able, though by no means certain – the dating would indeed fit our identification. The physi-ognomical similarity is striking, and since this portrait – even allowing for the parts that are missing – was clearly significantly larger than life, we do ultimately feel justified in propos-ing that it shows Arsinoë III. Bibliography: Chr. Vorster, Woran erkennt man eine Ptolemäerin? In: Th. Greub – M. Roussel (eds.), Figura-tionen des Porträts (2018) 67–98. Female head, perhaps a portrait of the Ptolemaic queen Arsinoë III. H. 25.5 cm. Marble. Greek, ca. 220–200 B.C. Formerly priv. coll. Liechti, Geneva, acquired before 1970. Price on requestFirst there is the issue of dating. There are no com-pelling reasons that indicate the head was made during the Roman Imperial Period; we are thus dealing with a Greek original. The head’s formal indebtedness to the late Classical period of the 4th century B.C. is clearly in evidence, especially in the very regular, initially rather ‘closed’-looking composi-tion of the face with its ax-ially arranged nose, mouth and eyes. But there are also clear stylistic clues that are definitely post-Classical and that look ahead to the Hel-lenistic period. The lower face including the cheeks, for example, is distinctly elongated, while the promi-nent forehead with its fleshy brows is very wide and sits heavily on the rest of the face below. Such modelling and indeed the whole con-struction of the head are found towards the end of the 3rd century, perhaps in the first instance in the statue of a temple servant, the famous Anzio Girl (ca. 230 B.C.) in the Museo Nazionale Romano.Then there is the Cahn head’s convex cheeks, which sit on the bones as if puffed, but at the same time firm and neither swollen nor domed in the manner familiar to us from the flesh and muscles of the Pergamenian High Baroque. The cult images of the Lykosura Group on the Peloponnes provide an import-ant reference point for these formal findings. They are the work of the artist Damophon of Messene and there are good grounds for dat-ing them to the years immediately after 194 B.C. The modelling of the faces is certainly very similar to that of the head under discus-sion here. The same holds true for other heads of gods by Damophon created some years earlier. To aid us with our dating, moreover, we can compare specific details and analyse the structure of the lock of hair that falls into the face in front of the right ear. Its texture recurs in a portrait of Alexander in Olympia that can be dated to ca. 200 B.C.Probably Queen Arsinoë IIIBy Martin FlasharDetails of the Cahn head; Alexander Volantza, Mus. OlympiaArsinoë III: Gold coin from Alexandria; bronze head in MantuaNext >